LAO'COON, according to ancient fable, was the son of Priam (according to some, of Antenor), and a priest of Apollo, or as some say of Poseidon, during the Trojan war. While offering, in the exer cise of his office, a bullock to render Poseidon propitious to the Trojans, two enormous serpents issued from the sea, and, having first destroyed his two sons, whom he vainly endeavoured to save, attacked Laocoon himself, sod, winding themselves round his body, crushed him to death in their folds. This dreadful punishment was inflicted by the goddess Athene for the part Laocoon had taken in endeavouring to dissuade the Trojans from admitting into Troy the fatal wooden horse, which the crafty Greeks had consecrated to Athena.
An enduring celebrity has been gained for this story from its forming the subject of one of the most remarkable groups in sculpture which time has spared to us. It represents the agonised father and his youthful sons, one on each side of him, writhing and expiring in the complicated folds of the serpents. The figures are naked, the drapery that is introduced being only used to support and fill up the compo sition. This superb work of art, which Pliny describes inaccurately as consisting of only a single block of marble, is formed of five pieces of marble (but in spite of this mistake there seems to be no doubt in the opinion of the learned that this is the identical group alluded to by Pliny), originally decorated the baths of Titus, among the ruins of which! on the side of the Esqniline hill, it was found in tho year 1506. The names of the sculptors who executed it are also recorded. Pliny (xxxvi. 5) says. " Laocoon, which is in the house or palace (demo) of the emperor Titus, is a work to be preferred to all others, either in painting or sculpture. Those great artists Agesander, and Polydorus, and Athenodorus, Rhodians, executed tho principal figure (gum), and tho sons, and the wonderful folds of the serpents, out of one block of marble." There has been much difference of opinion among antiquaries on several points connected with this group : first, as to the date of the artists; Winckelmann contending that they are of a good period of Greek art, and as early as Lyaippns : the next 'question discussed has been, whether the sculptor was indebted for the subject to Virgil's fine description (` tEneid, v. 200), or whether the poet was indebted to the artist. With respect to date, the most careful consideration seems to.fix these sculptors as late as the early emperors ; and Lessing, whose work on the Laoeoon deserves the attention of all who take an interest in the philosophy and capabilities of art, believes that they lived in the reign of Titus. With regard to the subject, it is most probable that the story, being well known, offered advantages for illustration to the sculptor, as it did for description to the poet. As Virgil's priest was habited in his robes during the exercise of his priestly functions, and the group under consideration is entirely naked, the argument is additionally strengthened against the assumption that the artist borrowed from the poet. It is more natural to believe that both drew from a common source, aud treated the subject in the way they con sidered best adapted to the different arts they exercised ; the sculptor's object being concentration of effect, the poet's amplification and brilliant description.
This group is justly considered, by all competent judges, to be a masterpiece of art. The subject is of the most affecting and interesting kind ; and the expression in every part of the figures reaches, but does not exceed, the limits of propriety. Intense mental suffering is por trayed in the countenances, while the physical strength of all the three figures is evidently sinking under the irresistible pow er of the huge reptiles wreathed around their exhausted limbs. One son, in whose side a serpent has fixed his deadly fangs, seems to be fainting ; the other, not yet bitten, tries (and the futility of the attempt is faithfully shown) to disengage one foot from the serpent's embrace. The father, Laocoon himself, is mighty in his suffering: every muscle is in extreme action, and his hands and feet are convulsed with painful energy. Yet there Is nothing frightful, disgusting, or contrary to beauty in the countenance. Suffering is faithfully and strongly depicted there, but it is rather the exhibition of mental anguish than of the ugly and undignified contortions of mere physical pain. The whole of this figure displays the most intimate knowledge of anatomy and of outward form ; the latter selected with care, and freed from any vulgarity of common individual nature : indeed the single figure of Laocoou may be fairly referred to as one of the finest specimens existing of that combination of truth and beauty which is so essential to the production of perfect sculpture, and which can alone insure for it lasting admira tion. The youths are of a smaller standard than the proportion of the father ; a liberty hardly justifiable, but taken probably with the view of heightening the effect of the principal figure. The right arm of the figure of Laocoon is a restoration. Some have thought that the original action was not extended, but that this arm was bent back towards the head; and have supported their hypothesis by the fact of there being a rough and broken surface where they think the hand, or perhaps a fold of the serpent, may have come in contact with the hair.
It has been stated that the group was found in Rome in the year 1506. There is a curious letter, not generally known, but published by the Abbate Pea, from Francesco da San Gallo to Monsignore Spedalengo, dated 1567, in which the circumstances of the discovery are alluded to. He says, " It being told to the Pope that some fine statues were found in a vineyard near S. Maria Maggiore, he sent to desire Giuliano de San Gallo (the father of the writer) to go and examine them—that Michel Angelo Buonarotti being often in their house, San Oallo got him to go also ; aud so," says Francesco, " I mounted behind my father (in groppa a mio padre), and we went. We descended to where the statues were ; my father immediately ex claimed, ' This is the Laocoon spoken of by Pliny.' They made them enlarge the aperture or excavation so as to be able to draw them out, and then, having seen them, we returned home to dinner." The group of Laocoon and his Sons' is now preserved among the treasures in art in the museum of the Vatican at Rome. A very fine cast of it is in the Greek court of the Crystal Palace, Sydenham.